Market-making bots, compared by what differs
We build one of these, so read this knowing that. What follows is what each tool says about itself on its own site, where each is genuinely the better choice, and the one number that decides the outcome regardless of which you pick.
Hummingbot
Freqtrade
VesperThe honest disclosure first
Vesper is ours. A roundup written by a participant is worth reading only if it is checkable, so every claim about another tool below comes from that tool's own repository or site, with the date we checked it, and every place where a competitor is the better answer is stated plainly rather than buried.
If you want the version without us in it: for an open framework read Hummingbot's docs, for a self-hosted grid read Passivbot's README. Both are free and neither needs our permission.
- We build one of the four. Assume bias and check the sources.
- Every competitor claim is from their own site, dated.
- Where they win, it says so.
The four, in their own words
Hummingbot calls itself “an open source Python framework that helps you run agentic trading strategies on any CEX and DEX” and “the open source, community-owned framework for crypto market makers.” Apache 2.0, 318 connectors listed, runs on your machine or a server you rent; adding a connector or changing a strategy means installing from source. (hummingbot.org, 5 September 2026.)
Passivbot describes a bot that creates and cancels limit orders without predicting price, acting as “a contrarian market maker” with a strategy inspired by Martingale betting: small entries, then doubling down on losing positions in a grid. Python and Rust, Unlicense (public domain), self-hosted, nine exchanges. Marked “used at one's own risk.” (github.com/enarjord/passivbot, 5 September 2026.)
Freqtrade is “a free and open source cryptocurrency trading bot developed in Python”, with backtesting, strategy optimisation, trade management and Telegram control. It supports futures on seven exchanges. Its page does not describe market making; it is built for strategies that decide direction, which is a different job. (github.com/freqtrade/freqtrade, 5 September 2026.)
Vesper is hosted: you connect an exchange account with a key that can place and cancel orders but cannot withdraw, pick a venue and a mode, and it quotes both sides from your account. Nothing to install; equally, nothing to modify.
- Hummingbot: framework for building market making yourself.
- Passivbot: finished grid strategy, self-hosted and public domain.
- Freqtrade: directional strategy bot; market making is not its job.
- Vesper: hosted quoting on a short list of measured venues.
| Hummingbot | Passivbot | Freqtrade | Vesper | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Framework | Finished grid strategy | Strategy bot | Hosted desk |
| Market making | Yes, purpose-built | Contrarian grid variant | Not stated | Yes, two-sided quoting |
| Licence | Apache 2.0 | Unlicense (public domain) | Open source | Closed |
| Where it runs | Your machine or server | Your machine or server | Your machine or server | Hosted; funds stay on your exchange |
| Venue coverage | 318 connectors listed | 9 exchanges | 7 exchanges for futures | Short list, each measured first |
| You tune it | Yes, from source | Yes, backtester + optimizer | Yes, that is the point | No |
| Best for | Owning the strategy | Running a grid for free | Directional strategies | A measured venue, no tuning |
Choose by the question, not the feature list
Do you want to own the strategy? Then this is settled before any comparison: take an open framework. Hummingbot if you want to build market making specifically, Freqtrade if what you want is a directional strategy with good backtesting.
Do you want a finished strategy you can run for free and tune yourself? Passivbot is mature, public domain and has the optimizer already built.
Do you want a result on a specific book without spending the first weeks measuring it? That is where a hosted desk earns its place, and where we are, with the limitation that you cannot see inside it.
We looked for a hosted competitor doing two-sided quoting on the user's own perpetual account and did not find one. That is what our search showed, not proof that none exists.
- Own the code → Hummingbot (market making) or Freqtrade (direction).
- Free finished grid you tune → Passivbot.
- Measured venue, nothing to run → a hosted desk.
The number that outranks all four
Whichever you pick, one figure decides whether quoting works on your chosen book: the value of a single tick in basis points. A tick is a fixed price increment, so its cost depends on the price level.
On a gold perpetual near $4,450 with a one-cent tick, one basis point is 46 ticks, so a tick costs about 0.02 bp, and stepping inside the touch is nearly free. On the silver book beside it the same step is worth 1.47 bp: sixty-eight times more, and it eats most of the spread you were quoting for.
Same exchange, same code, opposite verdict. No entry in the table above changes it. Compute it before you compare a single feature; it takes thirty seconds.
- Tick value in bp = tick size ÷ price × 10,000.
- Below ~0.1 bp: queue priority is cheap, the standard toolkit applies.
- Above ~1 bp: stepping inside costs most of your spread. Change market, not software.
Choose by the question, not the feature list
- Own the code: Hummingbot for market making, Freqtrade for directional strategies.
- Run a finished grid for free and tune it yourself: Passivbot.
- Get a result on a measured venue with nothing to run: a hosted desk, which is where we are. Compute the tick value first, whichever you pick.
Questions
What is the best market-making bot?
There is no single answer, and anyone giving one is selling something. If you want to own the strategy, an open framework wins by definition. If you want a free finished grid, Passivbot. If you want a result on a venue somebody already measured, a hosted desk. The venue you choose matters more than the tool.
Is Freqtrade a market-making bot?
Its own page does not describe market making. It is built for strategies that decide direction, with backtesting and optimisation around them. It appears in market-making lists because it is the best-known open-source trading bot, not because that is its job.
Are free bots worse than paid ones?
No. Hummingbot and Passivbot are free and both are more capable than most paid products at what they do. What you pay instead is time: installing, tuning, and (the expensive part) measuring whether your chosen venue can pay for the strategy at all.
Can a bot make market making profitable on any venue?
No, and this is the most common expensive mistake. If the round-trip cost exceeds the spread the book typically pays, no software rescues it. We learned this on ourselves: on one book the measured spread was 0.07 bp against a round-trip cost of 2.50 bp, and eighteen of the twenty-six markets on that same venue were better.
Why does this page include the company that wrote it?
Because leaving ourselves out would be a different kind of dishonesty. The disclosure is at the top, every competitor claim is sourced to their own site with a date, and the places where they beat us are stated in the same voice as everything else.